by Suzanne
We Know What You Did This Summer
Late Friday evening (August 3rd) the Senate buckled under White House Pressure and passed a Republican plan to temporarily expand the federal government's terrorist surveillance laws. By a vote of 60-28, the bill (Senate Bill number 1927) would immediately allow the administration to begin conducting warrantless surveillance of foreign targets, regardless of whether the target is communicating with someone in the United States. It would require the attorney general, in consultation with director, to write procedures on how the executive branch collects that information. Those procedures would be subjected later to the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court for approval. The bill would expire after six months, giving Congress a window to work out a longer-term FISA overhaul in the fall. The Senate and the House each voted down competing Democrat bills that would have called for closer court supervision of government surveillance. According to the Washington Post , earlier this year a federal intelligence surveillance court judge ruled that a key part of the wiretap effort is illegal. The Washington Post says that this ruling is the motivation for this week's Congressional push to expand President Bush's spying powers. The House is expected to approve the Senate bill today. As of this writing, Saturday evening, a vote has not been taken.
Apparently, earlier in the day on Friday, President Bush threatened to hold Congress in session until its scheduled recess if it didn't approve the changes he wanted. Apparently, the thought of no vacation was enough for many Senators to roll over and play dead. If this bill becomes law, Americans making overseas phone calls will have no privacy.
Given all of the election year posturing of prominent Democrats regarding these wiretaps, you might think that one of them would have managed to kill this bill. The truth is that they care more about the President abrogating their responsibility (he didn't ASK them), then they do about protecting the privacy of Americans.
Posted on August 07, 2007
